Efficiency Evaluation and Influence Factor Analysis of Medical Malls

Abstract

At present, Japan is facing the problem of increasing medical demands caused by an aging society. The imbalance between supply and demand makes the efficiency of medical services particularly important. In this context, a new medical facility, medical malls, has emerged in recent years. Different from independent clinics, the medical mall is a facility that integrates multiple medical functions and provides multi-disciplinary treatments for patients. In order to verify the effectiveness of this new medical facility and explore its relationship with the urban environment, this paper first identifies the medical malls in Fukuoka City and studies their characteristics, then the SBM model was used to calculate the medical efficiency of the clinics in the 75 medical malls, compared with the independent clinics. Finally, the research analysed the spatial distribution of the medical mall efficiency and the spatial regression with the surrounding urban environment. The results show that the medical mall is a more efficient facility, and population density of the young and the working-aged, the number of main roads, total construction area, the proportion of residence and commerce, and the number of the other medical facilities have significant impacts on the medical efficiency. This research proposes a method to evaluate the effectiveness of utilization of medical resources. Through the evaluation of medical efficiency and the analysis of the urban environment affecting efficiency, this paper provides data support for the site selection of medical malls and the rational layout of urban medical facilities.